Mrs R Robinson - English Deputy Head of Faculty
Miss R P Squire - English Head of Faculty
Miss M R Luscombe - English Teacher
Vision Statement
We teach students to communicate and express ideas about the world and other cultures through literature, in order to become well-rounded, empathetic individuals.
Introduction to Faculty
Living life through Language and Literature!
A student centred Faculty, we offer a diverse range of study topics to develop students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, underpinned by strong spelling, punctuation and grammar teaching. We use a diverse range of engaging and challenging texts for students to study and improve their communication skills through. Students enjoy their studies with us and are encouraged to reach their potential.
The national curriculum is made up of a number of subjects, each of which is split into separate topics.
Extracurricular Opportunities
The English Faculty offer many opportunities for students to enrich their classroom learning. Theatre troops visit and perform plays like Shakespeare's 'Othello'. Students visit the Globe Theatre and see top poets perform at Poetry Live! Events; we are also planning a Year 7 trip to the Harry Potter Warner Bros studio as part of our KS2/KS3 transition unit. Creative writing is encouraged and students get the chance to be reporters for the day at the BBC news report annual event. Authors frequently visit and we also offer a well-attended Debate Club. World Book Day sees the English staff and some students dress up as their favourite literary characters. We also participate in an annual Readathon to raise money for charity.
Key Stage 3
All students will be assessed each term on their reading, writing and presentation skills. The progress of their reading age will be monitored through our Accelerated Reader scheme in the LRC and supported with daily reading during Tutor Time.
In Year 7 students will study:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Year 6 transition unit), A Christmas Carol, the Dystopia genre, Frankenstein, The Hunger Games, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Culture and Identity.
In Year 8 students will study:
The Ruby in the Smoke or Northern Lights, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Holocaust Literature, Sherlock Holmes, Much Ado About Nothing and Gender in Society.
In Year 9 students go in to greater depth looking at the context of texts and will study:
The Gothic Tradition (including The Woman in Black), American Literature (including Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird), Othello and Shakespeare's Villains.
Key Stage 4
We follow the new AQA GCSE specifications, with courses offered in English Language and English Literature. The new specifications are now assessed through 100% external examinations. There is also a spoken assessment where students are required to give a presentation which is recorded for AQA. This can be on a topic of their choice and is an opportunity for independent research.
Students’ written accuracy, speaking and reading skills are developed through the course and spelling, punctuation and grammar are assessed skills for both language and literature. The full specifications can be accessed through the following links:
Key Stage 5
The Language and Literature Faculty offer three popular and successful fully linear A Levels with exams being taken at the end of the two year course. We follow the OCR A level specifications for Key Stage 5 English Language, English Literature and Film Studies. The courses we offer are below, along with links to the specifications:
During the two years students will learn how to analyse texts and identify patterns, study the impact technology and globalisation has had upon the English language and explore the issues of gender and power. They will also study how language has changed across time, how children learn to speak and will complete an investigation in to an area of their own choice.
At A Level, students will be studying American Literature and making links between The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath and The Age of Innocence. Other exam texts include Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, Shakespeare's The Tempest and Ibsen's A Doll's House. Students will also complete a coursework portfolio, choosing their own texts to study.
Across the two years, students will be studying a variety of films, genres and directors, and units including History of Film, Documentary, Critical Approaches to British and US Film, and European Cinema, alongside the concept of spectatorship and the viewing experience, and auteurism and its validity.
